The surprise leader as we rank every Newcastle United player by minutes played in pre-season

Newcastle United rounded off a successful pre-season campaign with a 2-1 win over La Liga side Athletic Bilbao.

Eddie Howe’s side faced seven opponents in pre-season - starting with Gateshead and ending with Bilbao at St James’ Park.

In between, the Magpies faced 1860 Munich and Mainz 05 in Austria before taking on Burnley and Benfica in Portugal.

United hosted Serie A outfit Atalanta on Friday and Bilbao less than 24 hours later, which attracted a combined crowd of over 86,000.

Newcastle won five and lost two but as we all know, results in don’t matter in pre-season.

It’s all about the minutes and here, NewcastleWorld ranks each Magpies player in order of minutes played:

17. Paul Dummett - 265 minutes

Newcastle have managed Dummett’s minutes carefully in pre-season. Photo: Stu Forster

Missed the Austria opener against 1860 Munich with muscle tightness but has been fine since. Photo: Naomi Baker

Featured in every game bar the opener against Gateshead in a behind closed doors friendly. | Getty Images

Kept a clean sheet against Atalanta on Friday. | Getty Images